By Mark Sherman
President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to block critics from his personal Twitter account.
The administration said in a high-court filing Thursday that Trump's @realdonaldtrump account with more than 85 million followers is his personal property and blocking people from it is akin to elected officials who refuse to allow their opponents' yard signs on their front lawns.
"President Trump's ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking function, are independent of his presidential office," acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall wrote in urging the justices to review the case.
The federal appeals court in New York ruled last year that Trump uses the account to make daily pronouncements and observations that are overwhelmingly official in nature. It held that Trump violated the First Amendment whenever he blocked a critic to silence a viewpoint.
A decision about whether even to hear the case is not likely before the November election.
The case grew out of a challenge brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which sued on behalf of seven individuals blocked by Trump after criticizing his policies.
Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute's executive director, said the justices should decline to take up Trump's appeal.
"This case stands for a principle that is fundamental to our democracy and basically synonymous with the First Amendment: government officials can't exclude people from public forums simply because they disagree with their political views," Jaffer said in a statement.
The administration argued in its appeal that the Supreme Court, not lower courts, "should decide where to draw the line between the President's personal decisions and official conduct."
The pace of the case was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic as well as Trump's decision to ask the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the ruling by a three-judge panel. The court refused to do so by a 7-2 vote in March. Two Trump appointees, Judges Michael H. Park and Richard J. Sullivan, were the only members of the court to side with the president.
The Supreme Court extended its deadline to file an appeal from 90 days to 150 days when it shut the building to the public and abandoned in-person meetings in favor of telephone conferences because of the virus outbreak.
Addressing the nation, President Joe Biden is defending the way the U.S. ended its 20-year “forever war” in Afghanistan.
In his opening remarks for the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank could begin tapering its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases this year.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election in about two weeks. Newsom was elected governor in 2018 with nearly 62% of the vote after working as lieutenant governor for eight years. However, his popularity took a hit after his handling of Covid-19 pandemic, although the White House is refusing to cite this as the direct reason for the September 14th recall election. There are 46 candidates running to be Newsom's replacement, and some are saying that California could end up electing a republican governor.
Jeremy White, California politics reporter and co-writer of daily California Playbook Newsletter at Politico, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss more about the election and its possible outcomes.
President Joe Biden says the United States will complete it's evacuation of Americans and others from Kabul, despite the attack that killed 12 U.S. service members and many Afghan civilians.
Crypto-enthusiasts are taking to social media to urge regular Afghans to adopt bitcoin in the face of considerable economic uncertainty.
The U.S. economy grew at a 6.6% annual rate last quarter, slightly faster than previously estimated, the government said Thursday in a report that pointed to a sustained consumer-led rebound from the pandemic recession.
The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant says it plans to build an undersea tunnel so that massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water can be released into the ocean about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) away from the plant to avoid interference with local fishing.
Two suicide bombers and gunmen have targeted crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in five weeks even though the economy and job market have been recovering briskly from the coronavirus pandemic.
Secretary of State Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan.
